Customs assists enterprises in resolving difficulties

Customs sector widely disseminates law enforcement

My Phuoc Industrial Park Customs Branch Officers under Binh Duong Customs Department at work. Photo: T.D

Facilitating the flow of imports and exports

In the context of import and export turnover continuously decreasing, however, fruit and vegetable products' import and export turnover in the first seven months of the year reached US$ 3.23 billion.

General Secretary of Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association Dang Phuc Nguyen said that motivated by growth momentum this year, the export turnover of fruit and vegetables may hit a record of US$ 5 billion. The Customs have supported the positive results in facilitating customs clearance.

"When goods were congested at the border gate, the Customs immediately arranged for officers to work overtime, opened more channels for goods exported to China. At border gates, Customs performed overnight to clear goods," Nguyen said.

The General Secretary also said that agricultural products and vegetables such as lychees, longans, and durian are easily damaged if they are not cleared promptly, so the priority in customs clearance given to these items has reduced costs and losses for businesses. This approach needs to be maintained and expanded shortly.

Mr. Nguyen Van Hung, Deputy Director of the Customs Services Department, HCM City Branch of Yusen Logistics Vietnam, said that the Customs has promoted customs reform and modernization to better serve people and businesses per the Customer Service Charter.

Implementing the Customs-Business Dialogue has been highly appreciated by the business community, which was maintained at all levels and promptly removed problems in the customs process. The Voluntary Corporate Compliance pilot program has brought positive results when the Customs have effectively supported the businesses. The program has helped businesses improve their awareness of voluntarily complying with the law, identified risks and opportunities in business activities, improved risk management rankings and facilitated trade.

Deputy Director Nguyen Van Hung said businesses have paid attention to reforming customs policies and procedures to facilitate enterprises. Therefore, the promulgation of Circular 33/2023/TT-BTC regulating the determination of origin of imported and exported goods, which the General Department of Vietnam Customs drafts, inherits provisions of former circulars and supplements some regulations facilitating enterprises such as extending the time submitting C/O to enjoy tax incentives, submitting the scanned copy with the digital signature instead of paper documents …

Enterprises expect digital transformation

Motivated by impressive results in implementing customs reform and accompanying businesses, Mr Nguyen Van Hung expects that the Customs sector will continue to maintain the reform in the coming time. The sector will soon launch the "Digital Customs" and "Smart Customs" models to reform the whole sector deeply.

According to a representative of the Vietnam Fruit and Vegetable Association, the electronicization of customs processes and procedures has made an important contribution to helping businesses quickly clear goods and increase production and business activities. Therefore, in the current general trend, the Customs sector should promote the implementation of digital transformation plans in line with the current world development trends. In addition, the sector should strengthen measures to combat trade fraud because there is a situation of fraud in growing area codes and packaging facility codes in the Fruit and Vegetable sector, and coordinate with relevant authorities in controlling the quality of goods traded on the market.

The representative of Yusen Logistics Vietnam said that Customs should increase investment in machinery and information technology equipment to meet the increasing demand for online public services and limit system errors. At the same time, coordinate with other state management agencies to effectively implement specialized inspection reforms to create a healthy business environment and save business compliance costs. It is necessary to complete and implement management policies for e-commerce to keep up with the development of this new business type and prevent revenue loss and trade fraud while facilitating the flow of goods.

The businesses' recognition has shown the Customs sector's great effort in reforming, modernizing, and accompanying businesses.